Introduction to NIMS Administrative Divisions and Offices

Administrative Offices Directly Under the President

Corporate Planning Office

The Corporate Planning Office serves as the core for coordinating management and field operations across NIMS. It materializes the president's vision, generating world-class outcomes by planning projects, requesting and allocating budgets, evaluating corporations and research projects, analyzing surveys, and handling tasks related to the TIA Bridge Project. A crucial role is to integrate individual researchers' efforts into projects, which is necessary to ensure that research findings return to society and fulfill our mission as a specified national research and development institute.

Audit Office

The Audit Office undertakes audits from the perspectives of legal and regulatory compliance as well as of operational accuracy, efficiency, and effectiveness at NIMS. It identifies any issues to ensure proper and efficient execution of our operations and provides appropriate recommendations for improvements.

Compliance Office

The Compliance Office at NIMS is dedicated to establishing and promoting an internal control system to effectively and efficiently fulfill the organization's mission. It focuses primarily on ensuring research integrity and compliance, as well as managing trade security, in accordance with national guidelines. It works closely with internal audits to strengthen the system for promoting research integrity and to ensure that operations are conducted properly and efficiently. Specifically, it conducts training and education in response to various risks and to cultivate compliance awareness. It also carries out rigorous assessments and reviews of goods and technologies to smoothly and appropriately implement the trade security management system based on the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act.

The Compliance Office comprises the Compliance Group and the Security Export Control Group, with their responsibilities outlined as follows:

Compliance Group:

Security Export Control Group:

Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program Office

The Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program Office operates under the Cabinet Office's Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP), specifically addressing the project of "Building an Innovation and Cultivation Ecosystem for the Materials Industry". As the research promotion entity for this initiative, the office is involved in supporting and evaluating projects, as well as in public relations activities.

To encourage the creation of unicorn ventures* in the material industry sector, this office undertakes the identification and cultivation of technological seeds, the networking of support platforms, and the establishment of soft infrastructure (common operational rules for platforms, development of entrepreneurial talent, etc.) essential for the ecosystem. Through these efforts, it drives forward scientific and technological innovations that can serve as a driving force for economic growth and radically transform society.

* A ‘unicorn’ is a startup venture with a value of over $1 billion.

External Collaboration Division

A division dedicated to formulating and executing technology transfer and patent strategies that more effectively return the results of research to society through enhanced domestic and international industry-academia-government collaborations.

Overview

The External Collaboration Division aims to return NIMS's research results to society in various forms by promoting collaboration with external parties, not only in Japan but also globally. It ensures that collaborations are appropriate for NIMS as a core institution in materials research. The division has a diverse range of staff and operates various collaboration programs for responding to requests from companies, universities, and other entities. Under the current mid-to-long term plan, the role of the External Collaboration Division is to ensure NIMS fully play its role as a global hub for materials research. The aim is to construct a research base with a strong centripetal force that attracts leading researchers and students from all over the world by establishing new frameworks for collaboration.

Subsidiary offices

Intellectual Property Office

The Intellectual Property Office is responsible for the prosecution , maintenance, and management of intellectual property created at NIMS. The Intellectual Property Office builds robust intellectual property strategy and utilize the intellectual property flexibly to accelerate the return of research results to society.

Industrial Collaboration Office

he Industrial Collaboration Office primarily deals with collaboration contracts such as non-disclosure agreements, business contracts, collaborative research contracts, and patent licensing agreements with external parties, including companies, universities, and public institutions. It also works on developing new collaborative partnerships.

Organizational collaboration

NIMS collaborates with various entities through the Industrial Collaboration Center, Area Collaboration Center, and Open Platforms.

Division of International Collaborations and Public Relations

Advancing academic collaboration, talent development, and public relations to support the vitality of materials research.

Division overview

The Division of International Collaborations and Public Relations drives various initiatives essential for enhancing the academic vitality of the materials science research in Japan. These initiatives strengthen academic collaborations with leading universities and research institutes, both domestically and internationally, thus positioning NIMS as a global hub for materials science, and aim to discover and nurture young research talent from around the world. Specifically, the division is responsible for building a global network for academic research, operating a collaborative graduate program that utilize NIMS's world-class research environment to promote research-based education, welcoming young talent through various programs, and disseminating NIMS's research achievements and activities and the dynamism of cutting-edge research to the world through public relations activities.

Academic Collaboration Office

Through collaboration with leading universities and public research institutes in Japan and around the world, the Academic Collaboration Office promotes further academic level enhancement and global collaborations, by proactively fostering exchanges with prominent researchers, young researchers and students.

Public Relations Office

This office is responsible for issuing public relations magazines, managing the official website, publishing academic journals, handling media inquiries, and accommodating visitors with the aim of widely disseminating NIMS's research achievements and activities.

International Support Office

This office provides support services for the International Center for Young Scientists (ICYS) and foreign researchers enrolled at NIMS.

Human Resources Division

Planning, proposing, and executing strategies for discovering, educating, managing, and designing career paths for the talented personnel who form the foundation of NIMS.

Division overview

NIMS is committed to maximizing research and development outcomes in the field of materials science and technology in Japan by nurturing and enhancing the quality of research, engineering, and administrative staff. The Human Resources Division's responsibilities include recruitment, training, evaluation, welfare benefits, labor regulations, health, and salary management. The division ensures every staff member fully understands NIMS's mission while engaging in their duties with satisfaction and peace of mind. It does this by promoting work-life balance, creating a favorable workplace environment, developing staff expertise over the long term through appropriate training opportunities, and enriching mental care. It also addresses diversity promotion and support for the next generation in a flexible way, specifically encouraging the employment of young and female researchers.

Subsidiary offices

Human Resources Development Office

This office manages the planning and operation of strategies related to recruitment, evaluation, treatment, placement, talent development, and career support for tenured research and engineering staff.

Personnel Office

This office handles recruitment, evaluation, treatment, and placement of tenured administrative staff, employment procedures for permanent contract transferees and fixed-term staff, procedures for accepting non-employed visitors, welfare benefits, salary, labor and attendance management, health management, diversity promotion, harassment consultation responses, and the operation and improvement of the personnel system.

Administration and Safety Management Division

Supporting research activities at NIMS by integrally promoting the management of buildings, maintenance of facilities and equipment, occupational safety and health, and disaster prevention.

Division overview

NIMS depends on proper maintenance, operation, and management of common facilities and equipment, building management (including security measures), and the safety of research activities. In addition to general affairs tasks such as handling legal affairs, regulations, and document management, this division also handles building security measures such as physical access control, maintenance of facilities, safety management of high-pressure gas, etc. and activities for occupational safety and health. These are duties of the Administration and Safety Management Division, which supports the operation of NIMS from the aspect of facility and safety management, the basis of the entire business.

Subsidiary offices

General Affairs Office

To ensure the smooth operation of NIMS, this office oversees building management, legal affairs, regulations, document management, and the overall coordination of administrative offices for research centers.

Facilities Planning and Management Office

This office manages the upkeep of buildings and structures, the maintenance of electrical and mechanical facilities, the cleaning of buildings, the conservation of green spaces, and research space management, all the while taking into account the environment.

Safety Management Office

To improve health and safety at NIMS, this office carries out workplace inspections, education and training on occupational safety and health, fire prevention, disaster prevention, and manages legally mandated filings and management.

Finance Division

The Finance Division is responsible for the management and use of funds and assets necessary for the operation of NIMS, thereby supporting the various activities of NIMS research.

Division overview

The transparency and efficiency of NIMS operations depends on appropriate management and use of funds and assets. The Finance Division undertakes a wide range of accounting tasks to support the entire research program of NIMS, including accounting, payments, inspections, asset management, contract procedures for competitive bidding, and administration of contracts for commissioned work, grants, and subsidies.

Subsidiary offices

Accounting Office

As part of NIMS's accounting function, the Accounting Office primarily handles the preparation of financial statements, income and expenditure transactions, fund management, bookkeeping for various accounts, and management of fixed assets.

Procurement Office

The Procurement Office carries out contractual work related to construction, manufacturing, and other contracts, as well as the acquisitions of goods, ensuring contract competitiveness and transparency.

Competitive Funds Administration Office

This office handles application procedures for commissioned work, grants, and subsidies at NIMS, as well as the execution and management of related accounting tasks.

Information Infrastructure Management Division

This division promotes digitalization and security for NIMS integrally and supports its research and development.

Division overview

As digitization and digitalization in research and administration rapidly progresses, it is essential to build, operate and maintain a common information infrastructure that ensures information security and promotes further digitalization. We are responsible for the operation and maintenance of NIMS’ network infrastructures and business systems, the promotion of digital transformation, and ensuring information security, to support organization management.

Subsidiary offices

ICT Promotion and Infrastructure Office

This office is responsible for the operation and maintenance of information system infrastructures like telecommunication networks and business systems for the dissemination of information by organizations and researchers, as well as planning and general coordination of digitalization for organization management.

Information Security Office

This office is responsible for ensuring, maintaining, and enhancing information security at NIMS. It accomplishes this by formulating comprehensive response strategies, providing education and training to staff, and conducting risk assessments.